Tanya Huff - Valors Trial: A Confederation Novel (Valor Novel)

The Confederation

--4 Valors Trial (06-2008)

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TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

About the Author

Although she left Nova Scotia at three, and has lived most of her life since in Ontario , Tanya Huff still considers herself a Maritimer.

On the way to the idyllic rural existence she shares with her partner Fiona Patton, six cats, and a Chihuahua , she acquired a degree in Radio and Television Arts from Ryerson Polytechnican education she was happy to finally use while writing SMOKE AND

SHADOWS. Of her previous twenty-one books the five-BLOOD PRICE, BLOOD TRAIL, BLOOD LINES, BLOOD PACT, BLOOD DEBTfeaturing Henry Fitzroy, bastard son of Henry VIII, romance writer, and vampire, are among the most popular.

Shes pleased to be returning to that world once again as Tony Foster, ex-street kid, and one of Henrys own, discovers that working in television has less to do with reality than he ever suspected.

Tanya Huff lives and writes in rural Ontario with her partner Fiona Patton. She has a degree in Radio and Television Arts from Ryserson Polytechnic. She's written many novels, a Ravensloft book for TSR, and has three collections of short stories. Except for the Ravensloft book (Scholar of Decay) all her books are still in print and available -- don't let bookstores tell you they aren't.

Several of her works have been nominated for the Aurora Award. She was on the jury for the 2000 Philip K. Dick Award. For eight years (1984-1992) she worked at Bakka,North America 's oldest SF bookstore, managing it for part of that time. She writes the occasional book review for Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper, not minding the fact it's only occasional because she just so damned pleased they're reviewing genre books at all. During 2000, she wrote regular columns for the Toronto magazine, Realms. Her greatest claim to fame is that she makes her living with mortgage, cars and cats, totally from writing and does no other work and has never received any kind of a grant -- although she will admit to cashing the Public Lending Rights check every year so it's not like she has any moral objections to taking government money. It's a great life.

The Confederation

--4 Valors Trial (06-2008)

Copyright 2008 by Tanya Huff.

DAW Book Collectors No. 1442.

For Mike Glicksohn.

Who has the very first book I ever signed. (I spelled my own name wrong.) Whose friendship has been a constant touchstone for the last thirty years. (Possibly twenty-nine, but whos counting.) Who was pretty much entirely responsible for the Mictok when he requested death by giant spider. (Okay, so technically they were only obliquely at fault for Sergeant Glicksohns death but still... ) Its about time he got one just for him.

GUNNERY SERGEANT KERR! Good to have you back! Good to be back, Sergeant Hollice. Torin thumbprinted the release that would send her gear straight to her quarters and fell into step beside the sergeant as they crossed the shuttle bay. And congratulations on the promotion. Adrian Hollice had been in her squad when she was a sergeant and then, when she made staff sergeant, her platoon. Shed fast-tracked him onto his SLC and had been pleased to see her decision justified when Command had given him his third hook. Not that she needed reassurance that shed been rightthese days, she needed reassurance that Command didnt have its head so far up its collective ass it was cutting off all oxygen to its collective brain. The squad have any trouble getting used to it?

Not after Ressk and Mashona knocked a couple of heads together. They said Id been leading them around by the diran avirrk for months anyway, I might as well get paid for it.

Torin grinned. The Corps tried to keep combat units together when it could. Familiar faces strengthened both stability and loyalty under adverse conditions, and Marines had their own ways of working through the disruptions promotions brought.

The captain was a little afraid they were going to send you to Recarta HQ, Hollice told her as they stepped onto the lower beltway.

So was I. After Crucible, after shed been detanked with her jaw rebuilt, after shed passed the physical and psych evaluations that followedany major reconstruction, Torin had asked to be returned to Shquo Company. They were short NCOs and, as shed pointed out, shed be wasted in a staff position. Although the Corps reserved the right to send her wherever the hell it pleased, both points were inarguable and shed been sent home. It hadnt hurt that the Commandant of the Corps had agreed with heralthough wasted ina staff position had not been the phrase used.

The last thing we need around here is someone else who thinks shes always right, had been the gist of the Commandants observations.

Given the hour, the lower beltway was nearly deserted.

Theyve started sweeping our Division. Hollice stood self-consciously erect as they rode toward the heart of the station. Started at First Recarta, of course, so the war could bloody well be over before they get to us at Fourth. Scuttlebutt says they havent found anything yet.

He tugged at his collar tabs, and Torin hid a smile at the telltale sign. In a poker game, hed have been bluffing. In a conversation, he was trying to draw her out. This was why hed come to meet her; shed been with the recon team on Big Yellowthe alien spaceship that had turned out to be the actual alien, or aliens, the terminology remained uncertainlater, shed initiated the investigation into why nobody remembered Big Yellows missing escape pod and had most recently spoken to a collective of the alien on Crucible.

Granted, melting her jaw during a last-ditch attempt to override a reprogrammed OpSat had meant shed been tanked during the initial There are aliens among us! hysteria, and shed missed the development of the search protocols, but she was the closest thing to an authority in the Sector.

You think they will, Gunny? Hollice prodded. Find anything, I mean?

Find bits of a polynumerous shape-shifting, organic plastic alien that boots through our security protocols like cheddar through a Hsan? Torin asked him blandly. One that can separate into submicroscopic pieces to avoid detection and then recombine itself back to sentience when the danger has passed? I very much doubt it. Search protocols and calming announcements from the Elder Races be damned. Not unless it wants to be found.

Great.

She had to admire the dryness of his delivery. Hed deserved that promotion. Not really.

What does it want?

It told me it was collecting data.

Studying us?

So it seems.

Why?

No idea. We may never know. Little pieces of plastic were ubiquitous thoughout Confederation space. The alien could be a part of any of them. It could be any of them. It could mimic other materials, and while the parts theyd most recently been in contact with had been gray, Big Yellow proved rather conclusively that didnt have to be the case. The handrail on the beltway could be recording data for the alienas the alienwhile she passed. Torin, by career choice and disposition more paranoid than most, had made a conscious decision not to think about that.

It could make us all forget it was ever here, Hollice pointed out, his voice fraying a bit around the edges.

Not all of us, Hollice.

He turned, stared at her for a moment, and smiled. Thats right. It cant mess with your head.

Took a look inside and was scared off. It wants to get to Shquo Company, itll have to get through me. Which was both the truth and complete bullshit since she had no more way of stopping the alien, singly or collectively, than she had of convincing the Navy that a straight line was the shortest distance between two points. But it was bullshit Hollice needed to hear and bullshit he needed to repeat to his squad. Or maybe it was the part of the statement that was the truth he needed to repeat. Whatever worked.